Hungarian Agricultural Research, 2000 (IX/1-4)
2000-03-01 / 1. szám
2 I News & Events • News & Events • News & Events • News & Events * News & Events Research and Development Conference Faculty of Mechanical E St. István University , The Agro-technical Committee of the Agricultural Sciences Department, the Hungarian Science Academy held its 24th research and development conference on the 18-19th January, 2000. This conference was an important review of research and development in agricultural mechanization. The participants of the conference included researchers from Hungarian university departments, with the cooperation of production companies, and participating farmers and agricultural experts from the commercial sector. In January 2000, 179 themes were discussed from various disciplines of agriculture, such as: arable and horticultural technologies; preparation and processing of animal feeds; animal husbandry technologies; as well as food processing; basic agro-chemical research; the economic problems associated with agriculture; the production and maintenance of agricultural machinery, and; technical developments in forestry. During the various conference sessions, 65 themes were presented and debated orally, but additionally, all the 179 themes were presented with posters. The introductory plenary session was opened with 400 delegates present. Dr. Péter Szendrő, Rector, presented the constitutional structure of the new, Gödöllő centered, St. István University. Following this, Dr. Imre Mucsi, the vice-state secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, outlined the importance of research and development in the evolution of agriculture, stressing the importance of professional and expert advice. Dr. János Веке, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the faculty. Over the course of the two days, between 500 and 550 people participated in the conference, with 40-100 people taking part in each technical session. Happily, there were many doctoral students in attendance, who presented papers on new research findings. There were 38 participating researchers from abroad, mainly representing universities from the neighbouring countries. Most of them being from Romania, Slovakia and some from Western Europe, however, Lithuania, Russia and Turkey were also represented. The official language of the conference was Hungarian, but foreign participants were given the opportunity to make their presentations in English. During the conference, delegates were provided with abstracts of the presented papers in English and Hungarian. The publishing of the conference proceedings will follow subsequently. Complete transcripts for the best 20-25 lectures, selected during the conference, will be published in English in the Journal of Hungarian Agricultural Engineering. On the evening of the first day, the conference organizers hosted a reception for delegates. Dr. László Tóth Hungarian Agricultural Research 2000/1